and with their
rifles made incapable of shooting.

THE SERBIAN PRINCES

One of the first results of this victory was the invasion, by Serb and
Montenegrin troops, of Bosnia. They succeeded in penetrating to within
a few miles of Sarajevo, and there they were held up not only by the
encircling forts but by the scarcity of their ammunition, for the
Russian supplies had not yet come through. "Your Royal Highness," said
a corporal one day to Prince George, the impetuous young man who had
resigned his position as heir to the throne and was at this moment far
more congenially occupied as the chief of an irregular band in the
mountains, "we have no more ammunition," said the corporal. "Each man
has a knife?" asked George. The corporal nodded. "Then let us go on."
The Prince has a great wound across his breast, from one side to the
other. He is very much the descendant of Kara George; he dislikes
making a secret of his opinions. King Peter, who was present at the
inauguration of the Belgrade synagogue, always refrained from entering
the Roman Catholic Church, since it was included in the buildings of
the Austrian Legation. His elder son was not averse, when relations
were strained, from taking an enthusiastic part in anti-Austrian
demonstrations, so that the Austrians were delighted to spread a
report that this ebullient youth had killed his orderly and must be
set aside from the succession. The truth was that George happened to
catch this orderly reading a private letter of his; in a sudden fit of
rage he struck him a blow, even as Kara George would have
done--unluckily the man rolled down some steps and from the resulting
injuries he died. A good many Austrian and German writers have said
that George is mad; he is certainly less fitted to govern Yugoslavia
than is Alexander, his brother. One remembers George, so dark and lean
and hawk-eyed, traversing the broad Danube at Belgrade in a most
original fashion; as the blocks of ice swept along he made his horse
leap from one of them to another. And one thinks of that more patient
prince, Alexander, poring for hours over papers of State, gazing up a
little wearily through his glasses, wondering for month after month
whether the crisis between Government and Opposition in Yugoslavia
will ever be solved. George will seek relaxation in driving a
motor-car as if the Serbian roads were a racing track; Alexander's
relaxation is to hear a new musical play, then to go home and repeat